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British soldiers verbally abused Australia women's team, say FFA

Football Federation Australia has confirmed Australia's women's team were subjected to sexist abuse by British military personnel.

Published

8 March 2015

Football Federation Australia (FFA) has no plans to pursue disciplinary action, after confirming British military personnel yelled sexist abuse at Australia's women's team during a friendly in Cyprus against England.

Australia - known as the Matildas - lost 3-0 to England on Friday at the 2015 Cyprus Cup, an invitational international tournament.

But the result was overshadowed by reports - originating from English football blog Girls on the Ball - that British soldiers had allegedly directed sexist comments towards the Australian players.

In a statement, the FFA confirmed "inappropriate comments" had been made but appeared to indicate they consider the incident dealt with, after an apology was made following the match.

"FFA can confirm there was inappropriate comments directed at players and match officials from members of the UK Military who were watching the Matildas play England at the Cyprus Cup," an FFA spokesperson said.

"A senior officer from the Military group offered an apology to the Matildas' management as soon as the match finished and that apology was accepted.

"FFA condemns the sexist and anti-social behaviour on display at the Cyprus Cup and reaffirms our position of zero tolerance, as contained in FFA's National Code of Conduct."

A British Ministry of Defence spokeswoman was quoted as telling the BBC: "Behaviour of the kind described is totally unacceptable and is not tolerated in the armed forces where abuse, bullying and discrimination have no place.

"We are investigating these claims and if it is found that any UK personnel have fallen below the high standards we expect then appropriate action will be taken."